CHERISHING OUR VALLEY 2013
Cal Automotive Inc. (vintage postcard - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013. (click on image to enlarge it.)
The following is unedited - as printed:
"8044 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, California 91605 - Phone 767-8025
INTRODUCING This worlds nost powerful Mustang Mr. Cal Automotive, Driven by TEX COLLINGS the famous Hollywood badman. Powered by the World War II P38 and P51 Mustang - 12 Cylindrs, 1710 Cubic inch, 3500 H.P. Allison, Tex Collins, the only man that ever successfully made a Aircraft engine run in a car. No problem to go 200 MPH in 1/4 mile."
Hey there may be a real story here!
The hot rod shop called Cal Automotive Inc. in North Hollywood was bought out by a Hollywood stunt man named Tex Collins. Several internet accounts have it that Tex died as a result of being shot to death over equipment sold to a Texas client.
According to a posting on the T Busketeers blog:
http://www.tbucketeers.com/threads/what-ever-happened-to-cal-automotive.10725
"Curt Hamilton who founded Cal Automotive has a shop in Van Nuys,
California on Stagg Street called Hamilton Automotive Industries. He
still has the T-Bucket molds with the improved dash panel and molded one
piece pick up bed body. All his bodies were hand lamenated fiberglass.,
cleaner and stronger than a messy chopper sprayed body. Tex Collins,
who purchased Cal Automotive from Curt tried to mass produce T-Bucket
bodies by selling franchiases with hastley made molds to "Mom and Pop"
operations. One such operation soured and as a result Tex was shot in
the back by the son of a law enforcement official and was later aquitted
at trial. Tex was a part time Hollwood Western stuntman who had a
fiberglass company called Ford Duplicators in North Hollywood when he
purchased Cal Automotive."
There’s
a little more to the story. The Tudor ended up in the hands of a
sometime Hollywood stuntman named Tex Collins, an Allison fanatic who
ran one in a Mustang Funny Car, plus the Lytle-built oddity seen here,
The Bad Brawma Bull, which used a White 3000 truck cab and modified
chassis (check the bolted-together roll bar, as with Big Al IV).
Collins, who owned Cal Automotive and was, sadly, shot to death,
actually made passes in this thing and got to the far end unharmed. Mike
owns the Bull, too. - See more at:
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/01/18/rip-jim-lytle-a-power-crazed-genius/#sthash.2YjjHEf1.dpuf
There’s
a little more to the story. The Tudor ended up in the hands of a
sometime Hollywood stuntman named Tex Collins, an Allison fanatic who
ran one in a Mustang Funny Car, plus the Lytle-built oddity seen here,
The Bad Brawma Bull, which used a White 3000 truck cab and modified
chassis (check the bolted-together roll bar, as with Big Al IV).
Collins, who owned Cal Automotive and was, sadly, shot to death,
actually made passes in this thing and got to the far end unharmed. Mike
owns the Bull, too. - See more at:
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/01/18/rip-jim-lytle-a-power-crazed-genius/#sthash.2YjjHEf1.dpuf
